Established more than 90 years ago, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has a mission to save lives and reduce injuries. By providing information, advice, resources and training, RoSPA is actively involved in the promotion of safety and the prevention of accidents in all areas of life – at work, in the home, on the roads, in schools, at leisure and on (or near) water.

Andrew Robertson of Expense Reduction Analysts approached RoSPA early in 2009: “I was fortunate in some ways that Mark Penny had recently joined as Finance Director,” says Andrew. “Part of Mark’s remit was to take a close look at costs, so he was open to our recommendations.” Utilities were the first category of costs to be investigated, and they provide a good example of Expense Reduction Analysts’ holistic approach.

Andrew Robertson: “With a number of sites, and imminent renewal dates, we had to act quickly. The renewals were, unfortunately, fragmented, putting RoSPA in a less than ideal position when it came to negotiating discounts. However, we worked by degrees to align the renewals and strengthen RoSPA’s leverage. I am indebted to my colleague, Richard Clayton, for his specialist knowledge in this area. After bringing the renewals into line, he achieved a saving of 45%.

Calling in specialist expertise “Indeed, I am fortunate to be able to call upon such wide-ranging expertise from across the Expense Reduction Analysts network – in RoSPA’s case, Mike Stevenson worked on Office Supplies, Nadim Vanderman on Postage and Pritesh Patel on Communications (mobiles). “Special mention must be made of Ian Middleton’s work on Merchant Card Fees. Merchant Card Fees are made up of bank charges and payment service charges and RoSPA were being billed on a percentage basis. Ian switched them to an alternative payment scheme, which resulted in 16% and 96% savings respectively.

Mark Penny, Director of Finance & Administration at RoSPA, sums up the benefit of Expense Reduction Analysts’ work: “As a charity we are always looking at ways to reduce costs but Andrew and his colleagues were able to assist us in the process by bringing new insights into how best to achieve this. They did not simply renegotiate but looked at each category of expenditure holistically, worked out what was best for us and made recommendations for a long term solution.

“Such breadth of vision enabled them to align all of the utility renewal dates, to give us greater bargaining power. It also prompted them to recommend our changing the basis of our Merchant Card Fees, which effected a substantial cost reduction. I would highly recommend their services.”